Characterization of meter-scale spatial variability of riverbed hydraulic conductivity in a lowland river (Aa River, Belgium)

Ghysels, Gert; Benoit, Sien; Awol, Henock; Jensen, Evan Patrick; Tolche, Abebe Debele; Anibas, Christian; Huysmans, Marijke

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.03.002

Cited by 29 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…The major difference between these criteria is how severely each penalizes increases in number of predictor variables (Eqs. (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)). For good prediction, the overall "best" PTF is the one that maximizes R 2 , Adj.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of watershed characteristics on streambed hydraulic conductivity across multiple stream orders

Abimbola

Mittelstet

Gilmore

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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Streambeds are critical hydrological interfaces: their physical properties regulate the rate, timing, and location of fluxes between aquifers and streams. Streambed vertical hydraulic conductivity (K v) is a key parameter in watershed models, so understanding its spatial variability and uncertainty is essential to accurately predicting how stresses and environmental signals propagate through the hydrologic system. Most distributed modeling studies use generalized K v estimates from column experiments or grain-size distribution, but K v may include a wide range of orders of magnitude for a given particle size group. Thus, precisely predicting K v spatially has remained conceptual, experimental, and/or poorly constrained. This usually leads to increased uncertainty in modeling results. There is a need to shift focus from scaling up pore-scale column experiments to watershed dimensions by proposing a new kind of approach that can apply to a whole watershed while incorporating spatial variability of complex hydrological processes. Here we present a new approach, Multi-Stemmed Nested Funnel (MSNF), to develop pedo-transfer functions (PTFs) capable of simulating the effects of complex sediment routing on K v variability across multiple stream orders in Frenchman Creek watershed, USA. We find that using the product of K v and drainage area as a response variable reduces the fuzziness in selecting the "best" PTF. We propose that the PTF can be used in predicting the ranges of K v values across multiple stream orders. Water scarcity is among the most pressing issues to humanity. Intensive water consumption, driven by a growing population and changing climate, places the world's limited water supplies under increasing pressure. These stresses often propagate throughout a hydrologic system, because streams, rivers, and lakes are connected to underlying aquifers. For these reasons, the interaction between groundwater and surface water is of much interest to water managers. The water exchange or interaction pattern depends on substrate permeability 1-4. K v is one of the major parameters controlling stream-aquifer interactions. There are several reach-scale and watershed-scale variables which influence the spatial variation and distribution of K v along and across stream reaches. These factors can be geological, hydrological, anthropogenic, or biological 5-11. Some geologic factors that mostly influence streambed K v are sediment particle size, underlying geology, heterogeneity of the substratum, thickness of bed material, channel geometry, hydraulic radius variations, and roughness due to natural and anthropogenic alterations 8. In hydrological modeling studies, homogeneity of K v is usually assumed for practical reasons even though it may lead to more uncertainty in streamflow modeling 12,13. Since it is not practical to measure K v at every location along a stream course, modelers often rely on literature values or few measurements, and assume K v does not vary across the watershed. Owing to lack of detailed information ab...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of watershed characteristics on streambed hydraulic conductivity across multiple stream orders

Abimbola

Mittelstet

Gilmore

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The flux of a heterogeneous streambed was found to be one order of magnitude higher than that of a homogeneous streambed [23]. Several studies have been conducted to examine the effect of heterogeneity on hyporheic exchange [5,[24][25][26][27][28]. The spatial pattern of streambed permeability was well representative of heterogeneity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

The Influences of a Clay Lens on the Hyporheic Exchange in a Sand Dune

Yao

et al. 2018

Water

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A laboratory flume simulating a riverbed sand dune containing a low-permeability clay lens was constructed to investigate its influence on the quality and quantity of hyporheic exchange. By varying the depths and spatial locations of the clay lens, 24 scenarios and one blank control experiment were created. Dye tracers were applied to visualize patterns of hyporheic exchange and the extent of the hyporheic zone, while NaCl tracers were used to calculate hyporheic fluxes. The results revealed that the clay lens reduces hyporheic exchange and that the reduction depends on its spatial location. In general, the effect was stronger when the lens was in the center of the sand dune. The effect weakened when the lens was moved near the boundary of the sand dune. A change in horizontal location had a stronger influence on the extent of the hyporheic zone compared with a change in depth. The size of the hyporheic zone changed with the depth and position of the clay lens. There was a maximum of hyporheic extent with the lens at a depth of 0.1 m caused by changes of water flow paths.

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“…Next to that, the hydraulic conductivity of the riverbed material is a function of numerous factors such as the fraction of fine sediments, river geometry, river flow velocity, catchment erodibility, and bed disturbance (Stewardson et al ., ; Ghysels et al ., ). Measuring this parameter directly and spatially is cumbersome and often not conducted or conducted only for a limited number of measuring points or a small reach of the river network.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

On the importance of river hydrodynamics in simulating groundwater levels and baseflows

Quan

Meert

Huysmans

et al. 2020

Hydrological Processes

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Research to date affirmed the key role of stream-aquifer interactions in integrated water resources management. The importance of river hydrodynamics on the spatial and temporal behaviour of groundwater was, however, not yet fully investigated. In contrast to the common approach where topography-based estimates of riverbed elevation may lead to inappropriate discretization and constant river stages, this study couples a fully hydrodynamic and one-dimensional river model to a twodimensional catchment hydrological model. The surface and subsurface runoff, groundwater, and river components are integrated into a single modelling framework.The coupled model was applied to a medium sized catchment in Belgium with three model setups, in which the level of detail of representation of river hydrodynamics varies. Further model iterations were carried out for the most exhaustive setup to assess the importance of the bi-directional interactions between model components.Results show that higher details of river hydrodynamics help to improve the simulation of time-averaged groundwater levels. However, the impacts were not that clear for the time-varying groundwater levels. Moreover, visual and statistical model performance evaluation indicates a strong enhancement of the coupled models compared to the output from the hydrological model with respect to river discharge observations at catchment outlet and at internal stations. It also reveals the impact of river hydrodynamics on groundwater discharges when the most detailed setting delivered the highest performance among the three coupled models. K E Y W O R D Sgroundwater discharge, groundwater model, integrated modelling, river hydrodynamics

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Characterization of meter-scale spatial variability of riverbed hydraulic conductivity in a lowland river (Aa River, Belgium)

Cited by 29 publications

References 62 publications

Influence of watershed characteristics on streambed hydraulic conductivity across multiple stream orders

Influence of watershed characteristics on streambed hydraulic conductivity across multiple stream orders

The Influences of a Clay Lens on the Hyporheic Exchange in a Sand Dune

On the importance of river hydrodynamics in simulating groundwater levels and baseflows

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